An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The writing team of Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, and Ugo Chiti won a David (Italian Oscar) for their screenplay, just as they would this year for the multi-award winning film Gomorra.Peppino (Ernesto Mahieux) is an aging, somewhat creep, short person, who finds Valerio (Valerio Foglia Manzillo) and is instantly attracted to him. He offers him a job in his taxidermy shop.When Valerio meets Deborah (Elisabetta Rocchetti), complications develop. Peppino has been bringing home a string of prostitutes to keep Viterio happy until he manages to land him.There becomes a duel between Peppino and Deborah for the body of Valerio. Rocchetti (Do You Like Hitchcock?) is sensuous, and determined - perfect for the role. Peppino is the star, however, and dominates every scene he is in.You are always wondering who will win, and the odds have to go to Peppino because of his mob connections.The film takes place at a lot of resort areas and is captivating.

It's a noir, no doubt... you even have the dark lady. Take three excellent actors, a well-chosen setting, a young and talented director, and you have L'imbalsamatore. Once again, when an Italian director is really good, like Sergio Leone, he can take an American film genre, turn it upside down and make a great Italian movie. However, Garrone proved how good he is not just by filming this, but by making another masterpiece, that is, Gomorra. If you like this one, try also the other movie. Basically one of the plots of Gomorra is set in the same places where L'imbalsamatore is set.Another important element of the film is the landscape. When Italian directors are at their best, they can render landscape like no one. Garrone can do this with the wastelands of Northern Campania. Hats off, then, to Ernesto Mahieux, who delivers an impressive performance that you won't forget easily...

"The Embalmer" (which is what the title translates as) is, in a sentence, about Peppino, a middle-aged Neapolitan taxidermist of stunted growth (verging on dwarfhood) who employs a good-looking young assistant he soon becomes obsessed with. Furthermore, Peppino has Camorra connections (the Camorra is Naples's equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia) and is employed by the Neapolitan mobsters to sew drugs in and out of their excellent cadavers. With its superb cinematography, photography, soundtrack and imagery (some of the scenes featuring dead, stuffed animals in the lab are unforgettably eerie), the film will be appreciated by anyone who loves a well-scripted, steady but confidently-paced, subtle little thriller that's never a crowd-pleaser.The sense of impending danger is always very strong and real in the viewer's mind, though it never really lashes into sensationalist, gratuitous violence. In fact there's next to no violence or blood in this film and not one single Tarantinesque, gun-waving shouting match between mobsters scene: in fact you hardly ever see a gun in the film. In L'Imbalsamatore, anger IMPLODES and is the stronger and more threatening for it, and the human element is far more prominent than the formal crime element. Though obviously, its organised crime subplot (which you only ever glance at sideways) is pivotal in heightening the sense of threat in the film. But it never crowds the film, which simply isn't ABOUT organised crime. L'Imbalsamatore boasts a psychologically credible theme of obsessive love and attraction which would make Fatal Attraction look hollow and fake. It's also never distasteful and never, ever makes cheap use of the main character's semi-disability as a shock element. Also, unlike the crass Michael Douglas movie, L'Imbalsamatore's obsessive lover is vulnerable and human, as only someone who constantly holds his bleeding heart in his hand can be. But when said obsessive lover starts resenting that the object of his adoration has had the emotional upper hand for too long, things can get REALLY scary. This is especially true when the spurned lover, any spurned lover has major Camorra connections, and the chestful of treasures he's been so selflessly offering his beloved is being dismissively waved away for the umpteenth time! You really get a sense of all the characters playing with fire in L'Imbalsamatore, which is why it succeeds in creating a sense of suspense which just never lets up (and yet never climaxing when you expect it to). The film is also invested with genuine humanity and is never judgemental or moralistic. It moves us to sympathy towards the obsessive and love-lorn character, who despite his physical appearance and potentially lethal reactions, is invested with true pathos and dignity. His tears are bitter and no different from those of any other lover, no matter how good, handsome or psychologically healthy. And that's precisely why he's so scary. Please watch l'Imbalsamatore: it really deserves more international acclaim.

Definitely not a movie for everyone. I looked for this movie immediately after seeing the most recent Garrone feature, Primo Amore (First Love) currently in the Festival circuit.The structure of the movies is non surprisingly very similar: a love story that transcends understanding and plays with common notions of relationship and sexuality, eventually trespassing into obsession. Again Garrone starts from a true story, but tries to make something universal, abstracting it from time (no modern technology) and space. The geography of the action is clear (well, at least to Italian) but the beautiful photography transforms the landscape into chiaroscuro paintings of foggy uncertainty. Ernesto Mahieux is the perfect choice for the central character-- a strong although somewhat physically stunted, madly in love protagonist.This is one movie that is difficult to classify: it's not a thriller, and very few will consider this a love story, although it borrows elements from both genres to construct something unique that gets under the skin of the spectator. Think Fellini and Lynch, but without the gratuitous weirdness. A little gem, for the few who will get it.